Econia is a protocol built for efficient trading of digital assets on-chain. It is a trading engine built for enabling anyone from anywhere in the world have access to financial instruments that are available for transacting. With Econia, sellers can list their assets for sale at any price and buyers can choose to acquire any assets of their choice as long as they are content with the price they are listed for. If you ask for a summary, I’d say, “Econia is an infrastructural service built to facilitate your trading endeavours on the blockchain”. Simple. But let’s dig a little bit deeper, shall we?

Blockchains enable people get access to decentralized systems or specifically, decentralized applications (now commonly known as DApps). The most popular platform which allows the development of decentralized applications is Ethereum. Launched 7 years ago, the first smart contract platform has been used to create numerous decentralized applications. Even though we now have many alternative smart contract platforms (commonly called Layer 1 blockchain networks), they are still far from perfect. For example, Ethereum can only process an average of 13 transactions per second (tps)    – this is rather low. Apart from having a low number of transactions per second, Ethereum has ridiculously high transaction fees. Because of issues like this, many developers have sought different ways to break out from the limitations of Ethereum such as the speed and fees and this has given rise to the creation of different layer 1 blockchains like Solana, Near, Fantom, Polygon etc. But some of these alternative blockchains often come with their solution accompanied by its own unique problems. An example is Solana clogging at 2000 to 3000 tps, and has paused operations for hours for more than two times. 

We now have a new blockchain in production called Aptos, with about 160,000 transactions per second at cheap fees. Once it launches on mainnet and it is successful by accomplishing all its wonderful feats in testnet, Aptos will be the first scalable alternative layer 1 blockchain without hiccups.  

Econia is being built iteratively on this new Aptos blockchain as the infrastructural trading engine that effectively allows any trade to occur in the ecosystem and between platforms built on the Aptos blockchain. In a more technical term, Econia is a Central Limit Order Book. A Central Limit Order Book is a trading system that matches peoples order based on a technique call a “Price Time Priority”. It is a transparent system for effecting buying and selling of assets according to the time of trade entry and the price assigned to the assets to be traded. This Order Book then sorts and matches trade according to these metrics. This is an underlying infrastructure used in traditional financial institutions like the
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ etc. This is centralized database for recording trade orders of customers. 

With the blockchain, people can decide to trade in a decentralized manner without the use of NYSE or NASDAQ and other popular centralized platforms. Econia is open-source and decentralized. Users won’t need to worry about the limitations that comes with the centralized trading platforms.  

With the introduction of the version one of Econia comes a unique type of on-chain trading mechanism known as the Atomic Matching Engine. What this means basically is that whenever a trade is initiated on the Aptos blockchain, the particular Market Order initiated in that transaction is settled in that same transaction’s instance. Even though the way Econia arrived at the innovative system is complex, it should not be hard for us to understand. What this means is that the Econia Matching Engine makes sure that the process of exchanging user’s assets and updating the on-chain information of a successful trade is done in a single transaction. Take for instance, the Serum Central Limit Order Book built on Solana, on-chain information gets updated after the exchange of assets has taken place on the system. This means that orders get queued because they steps needed for finality of transaction is not at once. With this innovative Atomic Matching Engine, there would not be a need for such queues anymore as transactions get delivered in the same instance at initiation. 

If a lot of transactions are happening concurrently, with Econia, the transactions would be performed and not get hindered by these multiple orders. This would make the network work effectively even in high traffic moments and less resources will be expended due to a reduction in the number of tasks to perform.   

The Econia teams are still building Econia iteratively since its still in the early stages. It has launched its version one on the Aptos testnet and the version two is coming soon. By the time Aptos goes live officially in the next few months, Econia is also expected to go live with it. The Econia dev teams are a
participants of the Aptos accelerator program aimed at incubating projects being built on Aptos. With this partnership in place through the accelerator, Econia will be able to access top talents from the Aptos team to help them navigate without issues. 

Follow Econia on the following platforms for real time updates on their development:

Youngblood Priest

Introducing Econia

This article serves as a guide that shows you what you can do with your airdrop.  Back in February, thousands of wallet addresses received the JFI-CALL airdrop. Many of those who received it did not really understand what kind of token it was since it was the first airdrop of its kind on Solana. Even though we are now in July, Jungle Finance.  

The Jungle Finance Airdrop is a Call Option freely given to those who participated in the airdrop tasks –
188 JFI-CALL for participants. (I had to draw a tree Wizard! 😭). An option is a special type of financial instrument where a person has the right to buy or sell a certain asset at a fixed price in a future date (known as the Expiry date). The asset a user has the right to buy at the fixed price is JFI token. You are not under an obligation to exercise these options if it will be of no benefit to you. 

In options trading, the Strike is the price at which the options can be exercised. For the call option
that was airdropped, the Strike price is $2 and it has an expiry date of May 1st, 2022. If the JFI-CALL is not exercised on or before the expiry date, the user forfeits the call option. 

For example, with a $2 strike, if the JFI token trades at $2.5 on the 15th of April, 2022. then I can take my 188 JFI-CALL and exercise it on PsyOptions. This will be explained in choice [2] below.

For those who got it as an airdrop, you really have nothing to lose if JFI trades below $2. All you haveto do is ignore the call option else you will lose money than gain it. This leads us to the choices you have concerning your airdrop.

You can just trade your JFI-CALL token on Dexlab, a decentralized exchange built on Solana. After
connecting your wallet, search for JFICALL in the search bar and select it.
Click on the SELL button and drag the slider to match the amount you want to sell. Almost $8 for the whole 188 JFI-CALL. 

 You can also click on the Swap button highlighted with a blue background if the trading style is boring to you. (It is boring actually🥲). The only difference I found was that Swapping will eat up some of the worth of the token. Stick to the boring one please. 

Since Jungle Finance trades at $1.61, you should not exercise it else you are wasting your money. But it’s not a financial advice right? 

 Connect your wallet on PsyOptions and select Market to see the trading stats of JFI before proceeding
to Portfolio.

In the Portfolio section,
you can see the JFI Call Option in your wallet. This is the place where you
exercise it. 

 I will be exercising 1 of
my call options at a loss to show you what is going to be the result if you try
to do the same.  Click on “Exercise”. This is where you pay the
pre-determined amount of the call option’s strike price. I paid 2 USDC to
redeem 1 JFI. 

Approve the transaction and wait for confirmation message.

And that’s all. You’d have received 1 JFI in your wallet if you are following the process. You might easily become the best learner in this article if you exercise all your 188 JFI-CALL in this money losing activity, dear degen. 

As shown below, this is me trying to swap my 1 JFI for USDC.

I will be getting $1.6 for what I redeemed with $2. Hug me and tell me you love me when next we meet in
the Jungle.

JUNGLE FINANCE: Planet of the Apes

If you can’t find Weimar republic on the map, it is because it no longer exists as that name. What is left of that republic is the modern-day Germany. Also known as the German Reich, the Weimar Republic describes Germany in 1918 to 1933. 

It was the first constitutional federal republic. The name of the republic was formed from the city where the constitution had its assembly. Following the first world war, after the chaotic conditions that affected most of Europe, a revolution that sought for prosperity brought about a coalition that lead to the development of this republic.

With time, this republic flourished in culture in most of the major cities and there were sharp improvements in the art, architecture and some other spheres of the nation. Economic Woes of Weimar: Around 1921-1923, Weimar Republic began to experience financial turbulence. In one of the cases, there was a strike action by German workers. 

During the course of this strike, flooding more paper money didn’t help at all. Rather it worsened it. They still continued pumping money into the economy without any direct value backing these paper money. 

"By mid-1923, the nation’s central banks were using more than 30 paper factories, almost 1,800 printing presses and 133 companies to print banknotes. Ironically, the production of paper money became one of Germany’s few profitable industries. At the height of the crisis, Germany’s state governments, major cities, large companies, even some pubs were all issuing their own paper money.” (

From this article, there is a historical record of some the occurrences during that era. 

. Although, the reason cited above was just one of the many reasons that caused the hyperinflation in Weimar, it was one of the contributing factors.

Although, in the course of time, there has been a worse case of inflation as experienced by Zimbabwe. The hyperinflation of the Zimbabwean currency began in February 2007 and reached its peak in 2009. 

It got to a time when as a result of the absurd increment of the currency the government stopped filing the official statistics. It was that worse. 

Resultant effects of the crumbling Weimar

On its Wikipedia page, “No single reason can explain the failure of Weimar The most commonly asserted causes can be grouped into three categories: economic problems, institutional problems, and the roles of specific individuals." 

With respect to this article, we are only concerned about the economic policies that affected the republic. 

“This cycle of inflation and currency releases spiralled through 1923. The denomination of banknotes increased, the largest note with a face value of 100,000,000,000,000 (100 trillion) Reichsmarks. The face value of postage stamps also skyrocketed.

By 1923, the largest-priced stamp cost five billion Reichsmarks – but even this was not enough to post an ordinary letter. On one day alone, October 25th 1923, the Weimar government released banknotes with a face value of 120,000,000,000,000 (120,000 trillion) Reichsmarks – while announcing plans to triple its daily output. By November, the Treasury reported there were 400,338,236,350,700,000,000 (400.3 billion trillion) Reichsmarks in circulation across Germany.” (From Alpha History).

One of the obvious effects of this hyperinflation on the economy of Weimar Republic was that it lowered the standard of living of the citizens of the nation. Since the money becomes worthless gradually, people tend to hoard perishable goods. The value of savings is fast depleting and the standard of living drops. 

How Cryptocurrencies aim to tackle inflation

The decrease in the purchasing power of a fiat currency can be escaped by banking on bitcoin. (puns intended). This is possible theoretically since Bitcoin was created as a hedge for this. 

Since the total supply is capped at 21,000,000, there will be no issuance of more Bitcoins in the market. This was one of the problems that faced Weimar – the ability to print more of their notes backfired into making their existing currency worthless.

With respect to fiat, Bitcoin is well positioned to function as a durable currency across the globe. 

These are collateralised and algorithmically created cryptocurrencies pegged to some assets that gives it a value that will make a unit of it equal to a dollar. An example here is the naira note that is currently trading in the range of ₦590 - ₦600 naira for $1USD. Five years ago, naira was trading at ₦300 per dollar. If I had ₦10,000 as at 2017 and I converted it to $USDT, I would have $USDT 33.33 worth of stable coin now.  And if I decide to convert it back to fiat at this current rate, I would receive ₦19665. But assuming I held my ₦10,000 through those years, it would worth only $16.95 now. Down bad!

Because some citizens of well-developed western countries do not see the need for cryptocurrencies, it didn't discourage many people with first-hand experience with inflation, recession and fraudulent activities committed by banks and other financial bodies. Countries like Nigeria has seen an explosive number of cryptocurrency users in the last few years and this number is growing yearly. As more people and nations of the world use cryptocurrencies, they are able to enjoy the financial freedom that it gives them. Thanks for reading. 

The Weimar Hyperinflation Movement in Retrospect - How Crypto enthusiasts can benefit from history.

Fewcha is a digital cryptocurrency wallet built on the Aptos blockchain network for people to
store their digital assets such as tokens, NFTs and any other digital possession that is used on-chain. Those who make use of cryptocurrencies will be needing a non-custodial wallet to store their assets for them. A custodial wallet is the type of wallet you have on centralised exchange platforms like Binance and FTX. These wallets are not really yours because if you get flagged on the app for any reason or something bad happens to the company that owns the exchange, your assets might be forfeited. A non-custodial wallet is the type of wallets whose seed phrase/ private keys belongs to you totally and you can import them to any platform at any time. An example is if someone creates a
wallet on Fewcha, they get to keep their private keys themselves. If they like they can decide to import it to another wallet provider of their choice. The wallet remains theirs regardless of the platform they switch to. 

An example of a wallet like Fewcha is Phantom wallet on Solana. It is one of the most used
wallets in the Solana ecosystem.

Steps for creating your wallet using Fewcha

·      Download the wallet extension to your Browser. (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fewcha-aptos-wallet/ebfidpplhabeedpnhjnobghokpiioolj/related)

·      After installing it, the page below is displayed once it launches.  Select “Create a new wallet”. (The other options are for wallets you have already created)

·      Input your password and confirm it. Click “Create”

·      Copy or write down your Secret Recovery Phrase somewhere because that is your access to the wallet. (Remember why its non-custodial in the first place)

·      You can follow their social accounts to get official updates from them

·      Log in with the password that you created earlier. 

·      This is the homepage of the Wallet. 

·      Tap on the menu bar circled above to get Faucet Tokens. 

·      This is where your NFTs will be displayed once you have them in your wallet.

·      The last section is for setting the wallet according to your taste e.g (changing the Network option). 

One of the main features that makes Fewcha distinct is their attention to details which helps provide a great user experience for both developers and people who wants to connect to the Aptos blockchain. It is loaded with features such as: Token Transfer, Token Listing, NFT Transfer, NFT Listing and Web3 Support. Fewcha also develops other Web3 libraries and SDKs that other developers can use freely to make building on Aptos faster for them.  

Aptos is a new layer-1 blockchain network built with cutting edge technologies and with a new paradigm that defines how decentralized applications can be created using the Move programming language. It promises to deliver a highly scalable network with a fast speed as tested in the simulated environment (160,000 transactions per second). This is the primary blockchain on which Fewcha wallet is being developed. As at the time of this writing Aptos is still in testnet mode and its not yet live for public use. 

For a project like Fewcha, partnerships go a long way because you can’t build a reasonable product in isolation. Projects like these are used by other developers and products on the Aptos Blockchain. Fewcha has taken some strategic partnership steps that will help boost its use, the product’s user base and its ease of integration with other applications in the ecosystem. 

From the name, Topaz Marketplace is a platform being developed on the Aptos blockchain network for users to easily trade collectibles – NFTs. Non-fungible tokens are unique tokens on a blockchain. It is different from the conventional cryptocurrency tokens that can be traded interchangeably without considering the exact tokens being used for the trades. For example, If you sent me 1 BTC and I want to send it back to you, I don’t need to send you the exact 1 BTC you sent to me. A BTC token can
be used to represent another one. They are fungible forms of cryptocurrency tokens. But NFTs are different. They are unique tokens that represents digital assets like pictures, paintings, Videos, PDFs etc.

NFT marketplaces like Topaz enable people to buy and sell the NFTs that are available on the blockchain(s) that the marketplace connects to. 

A great wallet experience for users is what Fewcha is optimising for through this partnership. To make wallet connection very easy, fast, and safe. It will bring about more compatibility between the NFT marketplace application and the Wallet. This partnership is fundamental in the creation of smooth and efficient trading environment for their users. 

For an application like Fewcha, there would be a need to properly audit the code used in its development so as to avoid unfortunate incidences like hacking. There has been many attacks on blockchain applications which has led to losses of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of crypto assets. Since many users will be having their assets on Fewcha wallet, there must be a need to guarantee to a reasonable degree, a level of safety its use.  

Verichains is a reputable software auditing firm with a team of proficient researchers, auditors and engineers located in Vietnam with a track record of excellence in their security endeavours. Verichains prides itself in their excellence with Blockchain Audits. By providing their security audit services they produce formally verified audits for your blockchain implementation, consensus protocol, smart contracts and DApps using industry-standard security patterns and best practices. This strategic partnership will help Fewcha wallet become more robust and safe for users. 

Zaptos is one of the staking solutions that are being developed on Aptos blockchain. The main goal for Zaptos Finance’s product is to enable people stake their cryptocurrency assets easily without any issue. Even though new DApps are being released almost, many of these applications do not prioritize the experience of their users. 

By integrating Fewcha to connect Zaptos, users can easily can access the Application and perform transactions such as Staking, Viewing, Unstaking of tokens, NFTs etc. With Fewcha Wallet as one of the fundamental infrastructures on Zaptos, users will have access to a platform that makes staking readily available.  

Since Aptos blockchain is still in testnet, there is still much time to iterate and make more features. The Fewcha team has many other items on their roadmap that they will be working on before going live. Within a short period of time, Fewcha now has almost 5,000 users on its Wallet Prototype. Chew Candy, not Glass!

Introducing Fewcha Wallet

If you have been in the Crypto/Blockchain ecosystem for a while now, you would have come across folks who have made it their life’s purpose to talk down on this industry. Some even take pride in using words like “crypto skeptic” in their bio on social media platforms. I think they get rewarded for that or maybe not. It reminds me of someone who has turned it to her full time job. (For her, it pays her since she gets to make a living off it 😹). 

However many disbelievers there may be, one cannot be apathetic towards their opinions because even though some are baseless and some from a point of view that is ignorant of others views, some are facts and they are rightly worth the criticism they advocate.

I grew up in one of the “developing” countries of the world with a very high unemployment rate, year-on-year double digit inflation and economic recessions once in a while. I have seen quite a number of things done in my home country that leads the average citizens into disadvantaged positions on purpose so as to benefit some few people. The structures put in place to serve them are now being used an instrument of oppression.

An example of those who were denied of their basic rights were my parents. When I was 10 years old, they got a loan from their bank to help them complete the Gas station they were building. Being a popular family in our province, they were granted the loan easily. They completed the station and had started operating in profit. Then it was time to start paying up the loan. That was when they discovered that the loan document had been falsified and the loan was double the amount received (which means the interest on the loan was with respect to the doubled loan price). 

After a lot of court meetings and a lot of losses incurred, my parents still lost the case. They were able to pay back what we owed but that affected our family massively. We couldn’t afford the best colleges that they would have had us attend if they had the capacity. The bank fraud really put us in trouble.

You might be thinking “so, what does that have to do with anything or blockchain specifically?”. With real decentralized finance applications, (not those kinds that promise you unattainable annual percentage yields but actual permissionless and censorship-resistant systems) if you take loans, you already know how much you will be paying back in principle to clear the loans taken. I have used some lending and borrowing platforms before and they work as intended. With transparent actions coupled with speed, this serves as a very great alternative to the banking system of lending and borrowing. (I didn’t even mention the stress you have to go through and the duration before you get approved for a loan and before they eventually give you the loan you have asked for). 

I could remember the challenges that always stood in the way of a friend (@blazemhan) back in college. He used to do a lot of dropshipping and blogging jobs. For him to get paid from international clients was a struggle - from borrowing another person’s Payoneer this, Skrill that and many more as the occasion demands. 

For reasons best known to them, PayPal only lets you send funds to an international account but you can’t receive money into your own account. Just because you are in my beloved country. Sigh 😌.  Ever since he got into the crypto space, those days are far behind him now. All he does is just to paste his Crypto Wallet Address and he gets paid ASAP. 

I asked a cashier at the bank last Wednesday on their fastest means that could help me send funds to my friend in London. (@dev_toyosi). He said “by using our WorldRemit App. “How fast is that sir” I asked. “15 minutes”, he responded. “Oh. Okayyyyyyyy”. 

Now, the amounts they would allow for such transactions are around $10,000. Now imagine I was trying to move a million dollars across the globe. 🥴. 

I said to him “I can send it in less than a second using crypto. Sir!”. He smirked. 

Could Bitcoin Really be inflation’s hedge? 

Can it really save us from the failures of our fiat currencies? Who knows? Certainly, not me. But what I do know is that Bitcoin is a digital asset with a fixed supply that is very successful at being an uncensorable money. It has proven to be sovereign, just like it was created to be. If majority of the world eventually adopts Bitcoin, there is a high probability that it could really serve as a hedge against inflation. What if it fails at that, and its worth keeps obeying the title of one of Kaleo’s songs “And way down we go o ooo”? 

Stablecoins - Cryptocurrencies with a more stable price than other volatile ones like Bitcoin can also help fight inflation (although not perfectly, it can be of great help in the war). 

Since their values are pegged to maintain an equal price with the asset they track, they are also not immune to the inflation that occurs with that base asset. If USD has an inflation of 6% year-on-year, it means your USDC also reduces in value by the same proportion. But even with this, stablecoins give you the hedge needed to reduce your risks with volatile cryptocurrencies. And with the inflation that occurs with fiat currencies, you can easily choose the stablecoin you want your volatile crypto assets converted to. If you think the USD might not have as much value in the future you can use EUROC for example. This is a new stablecoin pegged to the Euro. 

Let’s use the Nigerian naira for an example in this section. Between 2016 and 2020, the nation's currency experienced a double digit year-on-year inflation rate. For those living in that country, if they had converted their savings/earnings to a USD pegged stablecoin during that period, they would been able to protect their money from that terrible devaluation. In 2016, $1USD was trading for 200 naira (their currency). In 2022, the same is trading for 605 naira. By leveraging stablecoins, people from countries like this can protect themselves since they can easily access different stablecoins. 

Crypto is prone to a lot of hacking activities. Many people have lost their funds or the value of their crypto holding have gone low in worth because of incidents like this. Imagine waking up to the headline which states that your favourite cryptocurrency platform has been hacked and some hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen by the attackers. 

 (Portfolio getting burnt beyond recognition)

Sadly, there is no direct solution to this. Because we increase in knowledge daily, someone more sophisticated sitting in their mother’s basement could just decide to take your lunch… or your life savings. 

Softwares are being improved upon daily and that is why we have regular updates. Hacking is not unique to crypto. Citibank, the American Military, Sony, Apple iCloud and so many numerous cases of software hacking has occurred on the internet over the years. One major way to stay safe from occurrences like this is to keep your asset in your hardware wallets and then it’s your duty to keep it safe. “Not your keys, not your Coins” remember?

Some skeptics just don’t want to hear anything about “Web3”. Even if the word has been used to paint different useless “solutions” that has no problem to solve, the niche is worth exploring. Imagine people not building products during the early days of the internet, we might not have gotten to point were social media platforms can be created on the internet. When the internet bubbles burst, people didn’t stop building softwares on the internet. The occasion only pivoted developers into building real products that worked for the benefit of people! A little more exploration and experimenting on what blockchains can be used for shouldn’t hurt. So, why are you crying? Web3 is actually going great! 

(Image used ‘alongside’ permission from @0xgaut 😅.)